This week I wanted to review a beautiful bottle of prosecco I had over the weekend that we picked up at the Good Food and Wine Show. If you’re interested in wine, I highly recommend going to these (I think they are in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane every year). They are such a fun day out full of wine tastings from different producers and regions, as well as some great food. I found it has gotten smaller since the first time I went which is a big shame, but it was still definitely enjoyable! Totally worthwhile if you want to try some different wines you wouldn’t normally try, and experience different regions around Australia. I also love speaking to the wine makers as I always learn really interesting things about how they make the wine, it’s amazing what you can pick up just from having a great chat!

So we went this year and of course were in fine form after a few too many wine tastings, so we were quite agreeable when it came to purchasing wine. Personally I think we were pretty reserved, but we did end up with a few bottles! But hey, if the wine is good, you have to get it, right? So of course what caught my eye when we were walking around was a bottle that was shiny gold (I know, shiny things when you’re drunk are always going to attract attention).

Yep, I picked something shiny

It was a prosecco from Italy, and it was selling out so fast that they only had a couple of bottles yet. I made a rash decision because we got the guy to bring down the price (seriously, it was like a black Friday sale with people grabbing these bottles desperately, so I figured it must have been good) that I needed this bottle of prosecco. I guess it was my competitive side coming out and I didn’t want to miss out if it was that good.

But one of my partner’s friends was nice enough to buy the bottle for me once we got the price down, and I walked out of the wine show with my shiny bottle of prosecco, feeling triumphant (and a little tipsy).

We didn’t end up drinking that prosecco as I had promised to the friend who bought it for me that night. So I’ve had this fancy looking gold bottle sitting in the wine fridge waiting for the right time. This came up last Saturday night.

You’d think I would have waited for something celebratory, but instead I decided to open it with a friend. We had a bit of a laugh about how I’d managed to get the last bottle at the show. It was a shame that my partner’s friend wasn’t there to drink it with us (we did toast him in his absence). I decided it would be nice to give it a go and see whether a gold bottled prosecco live up to its golden exterior. Otherwise it would have been an average wine wrapped in something shiny to get sales.

The golden age

Normally I would stay away from bottles that are shiny and gold (unless I’ve had one too many proseccos, such as Melbourne Cup last year), as they are usually pretty average bottles of prosecco. They are ok, but they aren’t ones that I would rush back to. So I guess with this bottle I had pretty low expectations of what the taste would be. I judged a book by its cover. But I am here to tell you that I was wrong in this instance.

So the prosecco was the Calappiano 18 Carat Prosecco. It is from a 200 hectare estate in Tuscany. The prosecco uses the Charmat method. This is an Italian way of making Sparkling wine involving fermentation in a stainless steel tank. But that isn’t really important. Firstly, I found out was that I got a good deal on this prosecco at the show (so I was pretty pleased with myself). It isn’t an expensive prosecco, but it is more than your average bottle which is usually around $15. This one seems to retail around $23-$25.

Why I loved it

I have to say, the taste was one of the better proseccos I’ve had. It was so soft and didn’t have any of the tartness and acidity you sometimes get from proseccos. It definitely wasn’t dry, but wasn’t overly sweet either. I absolutely loved how easy it was to drink. It didn’t have the usual bite that you can get from this variety. This was probably one of the smoothest proseccos I’ve had in a long time. It was actually one that I’d recommend for people who aren’t usually fans of the variety, because it is easy drinking.

What to enjoy it with

Honestly, this wine was such a pleasant surprise! I thought we were in for a pretty average bottle, but it turns out that it was absolutely delicious! We polished it off quite quickly between three people along with a nice cheese platter. This would also go really well with some afternoon drinking.

Final verdict

I love the gold bottle for celebrations. It would be a great one to bring out at a party just to liven everything up! The bottle definitely creates a talking point but the prosecco lives up to its flashy exterior.